In Revit I sometimes see users having difficulties or just complaining about detailing, either over the model or standard details, and knowing where and how large of an area they have to detail in. In my last web-cast Detailing in Revit Part 1 I used a family that I have had for years and it sparked a lot of intrigue. I thought I would discuss how it was created and the benefits of the family.
My family is called Guide Grid.rfa and it is used to see the available space for detailing in a view. This family is created as a generic annotation family so it will scale itself as the scale changes. It is completely adjustable for titleblock or sheet size per project. This value may have to be adjusted on a project by project basis, assuming the title blocks are always consitent. There are also types in the family so a user can decide if they are working with 4columns wide by 4rows high etc. The size of the box is determined by the sheet size and the row/column quantity. Once the correct family type is placed in a view the user now knows exactly where to detail and if it is a live view how large to make the crop region. When it comes time to print just open the type properties of the family and un-check the lines so that there isn’t any orange lines when printing. Please download the family and let me know how well it works for your company.
Brian, is there any chance of getting a 2012 version *.rfa for us?
Without having played around with it; why wouldn’t you just activate the view on the sheet to see the available space? Then swap out your sheet for a bigger one if you overrun?
Thanks,
Elliott
Elliott,
You could activate the view but the size of the view is dependent on the view not the sheet. So to know how large the view needs to be there needs to be a guide in the view, either to adjust the crop region or to simply know in a drafting view. In the family I posted it will allow you to set it to meet the available area on a given sheet size. I will see if I have an older version to post up on the site.